Honeywell VISTA: Clearing a "System Lo Bat"
Related Products
Related Categories
Description
The keypad for your Honeywell VISTA home security system may display a low battery alert message if the sealed acid battery located inside of your alarm cabinet becomes compromised.
It’s common for the battery for your system to become drained for many different reasons. For example, if AC power is lost, the system battery will become drained, prompting the system to send out the low battery alert to your control panel. Or, one or both of the terminals which connect the battery to the VISTA system may not be properly connected.
This video outlines how you can clear that low battery alert from your keypad. In the video, you’ll find step by step instructions like how to open the alarm cabinet for your VISTA system, which will allow you to examine your battery and ensure that its terminals are properly connected and that the battery appears to be in good, working order. Then, the video shows how to clear the alert by inputting your alarm code into the keypad to disarm the system. Inputting your alarm code a second time should clear your low battery alert.
Keep in mind that if your battery is properly connected to your system, it will typically take about an hour or so before the system recognizes that the battery is properly charged so that you can clear the low battery code by inputting your alarm code twice into the keypad.
If you’re unable to clear the low battery code after an hour or so has elapsed, you’ll want to allow the battery to continue to recharge and try the process outlined in the video a few hours later. If the battery has been significantly drained either because a terminal was disconnected, or the system lost AC power for several hours, it can take several hours before the battery becomes fully recharged.
Once several hours have passed, you’ll want to key in the double disarm code again. If the alert disappears, you’ll know that your battery is in good working order and that it was just drained. If you’re still unable to clear the low battery code after allowing several hours for the battery to recharge fully, this may indicate a problem with your system’s battery that cannot be addressed by simply recharging the battery. If this is the case, the battery will need to be replaced.
If you’re unable to clear the low battery code, it may indicate that the battery in your system is beginning to die, or can no longer hold a charge fully. This is a common problem for systems which are older than about 5 or 6 years, or in instances where a battery from an older home security system is reused in a new system.
If you find that your battery is in fact compromised and needs to be replaced, there are several replacement options available. Popular alternatives for the Honeywell VISTA recommended in the video include the Ultratech 1240, which has an approximate battery life of 24 hours. The Ultratech 1270 is similar but slightly more powerful than the Ultratech 1240.
Transcript
Hi, DIYers this is Frank at AlarmGrid again, and we were working back in the AlarmGrid video lab on the 6160RF Keypad again. Today, we're going to be working on a system low-battery trouble, OK? So that means when your acid-sealed lead battery in your alarm cabinet is low or drained or potentially just lost AC power, and it drained the battery level a little bit, it's going to give you a low-battery alert. Now, until that battery is fully charged, it's going to keep throwing that error. So we're not really going to be able to clear this right now, but we're going to show you how to. The first thing you'd want to do is reconnect your battery if it's disconnected. So you would step over to your alarm cabinet which is your metal alarm cabinet with the battery and all your wired sensors in there. At the bottom of the cabinet, you'll see the battery. There's usually two leads, a red and black lead. If either of them are disconnected, you can reconnect them. Once it's reconnected, you can step over to the keypad and issue a disarm. So our code is still on the master right now which is 1, 2, 3, 4. I'm going to do one more disarm, and you'll see after I do that the low batt will still show because my panel still has a low battery. It usually takes several hours for the battery to fully charge if it's drained all the way down. In our case, I disconnected it about probably 10 or 15 minutes ago. So what I'll do now is go reconnect the battery, give the panel I'd say about an hour just to be safe, and then come back and issue that double disarm again. If it clears at that point, you know the battery is good. If it does not clear, give it a little bit more time, maybe another couple of hours and clear it after that with the double disarm. If you're still having issues, especially if it's an older battery that maybe you're re-using from an existing system, or if it's getting older than maybe five, six years, then the battery could just be dying and not being able to fully hold the charge. If that's the case, then you want to replace it. For the VISTA panels, we recommend the UltraTech 1240 which has an approximately 24-hour battery life depending on the system or the UltraTech 1270. So you can get either of those two batteries on our website alarmgrid.com and replace it. And otherwise, if you do have a good battery, just give it some time. Usually give it a few hours and then do a double disarm, and it will clear out, and you should be good to go from there. So if you have any other questions on low battery signals on the VISTA panel with your 16160 Keypad, you can email us at support at alarmgrid.com and don't forget to subscribe to our channel.
- Uploaded